New payroll system for council

The only council in Northern Ireland to have to manage the merger of four individual councils – Coleraine, Moyle, Limavady and Ballymoney – the new super council will have to incorporate four separate financial systems.

At Thursday’s meeting of the Transition Committee, it was agreed to spend £10,750 per council on the new system.

While some members of the committee expressed concern that the project had not been put out to competitive tendering, it was explained that the timescale involved did not permit tendering.

However, Gerry McCourt from Limavady Council also explained that the original price had been coming in at £64,000, but thanks to negotiations by local government bodies, that price had been reduced to £43,000.

The committee members agreed unanimously to accept the proposal.